PA leader Abbas meets Blinken in occupied West Bank

The head of the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, after pressing Israel’s leaders to offer a pathway to a Palestinian state, Reuters has reported. Blinken crossed Israeli checkpoints to reach the de facto Palestinian capital Ramallah, according to pool reporters who travelled with America’s top diplomat.

The visit came a day after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet over Israel’s ongoing military offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza, regional tensions and the future of the Israel-Palestine issue.

In a news conference on Tuesday evening, Blinken said that he would be discussing with Abbas the PA’s responsibility to reform itself and improve its governance. This reflected Washington’s view that Abbas, 88, needs to overhaul the authority in preparation for governing a post-war Gaza.

The PA exercises limited self-rule in some areas of the occupied West Bank. It is believed by Israel’s allies in the West to be the best hope for a unified Palestinian government of both Gaza and the West Bank, although the Palestinian people have not been consulted about this, nor have they been allowed to vote for their political leadership since 2006, when Hamas won the legislative election. Israel and its allies rejected the result of the election and have propped up the PA under Abbas, whose own political mandate as president expired in 2009.

Blinken came to Israel after visiting Washington’s Arab allies, who he said want closer relations with Israel but only if that included a “practical pathway” to a Palestinian state. US-brokered talks on a Palestinian state in territory now occupied by Israel collapsed almost a decade ago. Right-wing leaders in Israel’s current ruling coalition oppose Palestinian statehood, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At his news conference, Blinken declined to characterise how Netanyahu and his cabinet responded to his appeal about a Palestinian state. He said that Israel would have to make “hard decisions, hard choices” to take advantage of the opportunity offered by regional integration.

“Extremist settler violence carried out with impunity, settlement expansion, demolitions, evictions, all make it harder, not easier, for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security,” he said, alluding to ongoing settler violence in the West Bank, aided and abetted by the Israeli security forces.

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